All that glitters...

It's first impressions that count, meaning bar proprietors have just a few valuable seconds in which to make a long-lasting impact on their customers --good or bad. In the antediluvian days, when hotel bars were the preserve of crusty old fossils and noisy Americans, waiting staff were only ever given greeting positions after lengthy internships at the hospitality industry's equivalent of a boot camp - also known as an apprenticeship in hotel management.

This is where they were taught to bow and scrape and present themselves for duty Brylcreemed up, wearing freshly starched suits and highly polished shoes with solid, clickable heels. Old people and parvenus still prefer this style of presentation and inappropriate servility; the rest of the world has moved on to a friendlier, more casual approach without losing service or standards.

The staff at Pearl - this Pearl was cultivated in the shell of London's newest five-star hotel, the Renaissance Chancery Court in Holborn --are from the old school, but are putting on a collective brave face under the cloud of corporate repression.

On each of my three trips to Pearl, a smartly suited bird flew out from behind her post at the reception desk to greet me and ask the same curious question: 'Can I help you?' Help? What sort of help does she think I need in a bar? I was tempted to voice my best East End accent to say 'Look, darlin', you flog booze, I drink it. Now trot off back to where you came from and send me someone who can make me a drink'. I didn't, of course, I'm far too polite for that.

Pearl is set in a huge marbled and pillared former banking hall - the former headquarters of the Pearl Assurance company - which makes for an elegant, spacious bar. Comfortable lounge furniture is set in booth-like arrangements with each area segregated by strings of pearly braids.

If the bar succeeds in attracting drinks connoisseurs, they will have to look deep into the list to find decent brands of spirits. Bars of this stature should not be relying on Absolut vodka, Gordon's gin or Bacardi rum to attract custom, but I guess the hotel chain makes purchasing decisions centrally with an eye on margins rather than quality.

The cocktails, given the spirits used, are overpriced at £9 each (champagne cocktails run in at £10.50), but they're nicely presented and represent a wellbalanced mix of ingredients. The wine list is worth exploring, though, with more than 40 different bins by the glass. You can also buy flights of wine (three different styles of a similar genre) from £22.50 for three 125ml glasses.

I will happily return to Pearl again with someone I want to impress (a first date, an elderly lady or a business meeting), just as long as they don't know too much about drink and are on a budget. But I won't be going back for fun (it's not), the music (someone should tell them that piped, elevator music is a thing of the past now that the world has MP3 players), or to make friends with the bar staff (I'd stand a better chance of striking up a relationship with a tailor's dummy). Having said this, some will find that Pearl has the aspirational ambience to make a truly special night out.

Pearl
High Holborn, London, WC1V 7EN